


An exploration of poetic form

by lirin



Category: The Scarlet Pimpernel - Baroness Orczy
Genre: Gen, Poetry, Villanelle
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-02-23
Updated: 2014-02-23
Packaged: 2018-01-13 12:14:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 124
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1225855
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lirin/pseuds/lirin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Assorted poetry, all related to the Scarlet Pimpernel.</p>
            </blockquote>





	An exploration of poetic form

**Author's Note:**

> I decided I don't know enough about poetry, so I found an awesome book at the library ( _The Making of a Poem: A Norton Anthology of Poetic Forms_ , ed. by Mark Strand and Eavan Boland) and am working my way through it, reading slowly and treating it like a textbook. At the end of each chapter, to make sure I comprehend what I’ve learned, I’m going to write a poem using that form. Since _SP_ is the fandom of my heart and the one I know the best, I think using it as a topic for all the poems will be simplest. I make no promises of how good these will be: I’ve never tried to write non-humorous poetry before. But I hope to enjoy the experience.
> 
> On Chapter 1 (Villanelle):  
> I'm not going to provide any context on this poem, which is not based on any canon events, so whatever danger Percy and his band are in is left to the imagination of the reader. I think this is the least funny poem I have ever written, but I'm starting to wonder if I'm even capable of writing sad/bad endings.
> 
> A villanelle is a 19-line poem that brings back the 1st and 3rd lines of the first stanza at several points throughout the poem. Strand and Boland point out that the way it keeps circling back to where it started means it tends more toward "mood and emotion and memory" and does not usually tell a story (p. 8). My favorite of their selected villanelles was the beautiful and powerful "[One Art](http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15212)" by Elizabeth Bishop. Why has nobody set this as an art song? It's totally suited for it—in fact, I think the entire villanelle format is very suited to art song, with the way the same phrase comes back but changes slightly (or sometimes considerably) with each retelling. I have been unable to find many musical settings of villanelles however; I’m unsure whether this is the fault of my inadequate searching or of their virtual nonexistence.

Marguerite Blakeney, standing tall  
And patient at the _Day Dream’s_ rail,  
Is waiting for her world to fall.

She will not let her courage pall,  
And none who watch would think her frail:  
Marguerite Blakeney, standing tall.

The news is strange, and grim withal,  
And yet her posture does not fail,  
While waiting for her world to fall.

Around her neck she wraps a shawl  
And still resists the urge to wail,  
For Marguerite is standing tall.

The boat that, tardy, comes seems small.  
Its occupants have quite the tale,  
of waiting for their world to fall.

_Ensemble encore_ , they laugh and call,  
But soon once more they’ll hoist their sail.  
And Marguerite Blakeney, standing tall,  
Will once more wait for them to fall.


End file.
